Twice bitten, the anti-Telangana petitioners are not shy. They have now come up with a new set of petitions in the Supreme Court to stall the Telangana Bill in Parliament. The apex court will consider whether it should intervene in the matter.
On two occasions in the past, the court refused to intervene on the ground that the plea was premature. The fresh set of three PIls, however, has relied on the President’s recommendation to table the Bill in Parliament as a fresh ground that was not present on February 7 when the court heard the matter last.
The President gave approval to table the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2013 on February 10, which resulted in unprecedented scenes witnessed in the lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. While the ruling UPA combine has claimed that the Bill was introduced in House, the main Opposition party BJP differed with this view.
On Monday, the petitions would come up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Hl Dattu, which had earlier heard and dismissed the matter on two occasions. In the first instance, the petitioners came to Court against a decision taken by an inhouse committee of the Indian National Congress, leading the UPA Government. The second occasion arrived when the Bill got approval from Cabinet to be tabled in the House. Both developments were not considered fit opportunity by the Court to intervene as it failed to see a law being in place.
The three petitioners — P Adusumilli Jayaprakash, M Ramakrishna and K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju, expressed apprehension that in the event the SC would not step in at this stage, after the passage of the Bill the situation will be irreversible. On February 7, the court had heard at length counsels appearing for the petitioners, who raised objection against the Centre’s move to proceed with the Bill despite being rejected in toto by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
While the Constitutional question on whether Centre can act in defiance of the State Assembly would arise in such a case, the court has so far maintained that the stage to consider this question has not yet arrived. The Bill is likely to be taken up by Parliament next week.